170 ESSAYS IN NATIONAL IDEALISM.

really the case is very doubtful. If one should regard a
standard of simple living, conditioned by quality rather
than quantity of wants, where durability of materials
was preferred to cheapness alone, it is fairly certain
that even the peasant would be better advised to use-
(real) Swadeshi than foreign goods. And for those better-
off, for those who have adopted pseudo-European fashions
and manners to talk of Swadeshi as a sacrifice is cant of
the worst description. It implies entire ignorance of India's
achievement in the industrial arts, and an utter lack of
faith in India. The blindest prejudice in favour of all
things Indian were perferable to such condescension as that
of one who casts aside the husks and trappings of modern
luxury, to accept the mother's exquisite gifts as a
* sacrifice/

ISTot till the India,n people patronize Indian arts and
industries from a real appreciation of them, and because-
they recognize them not merely as cheaper, but as better
than the foreign, will the Swadeshi movement become com-
plete and comprehensive. If a time should ever come—
and at present it seems far off—when Indians recognize-
that " for the beautification of an Indian house or the*
furniture of an Indian home, there is no need to rush to-
European shops in Calcutta, or Bombay," there may be a
realisation of Swadeshi. But " so long as they prefer to>
fill their palaces with flaming Brussels carpets, Tottenham-
court-road furniture, cheap Italian mosaics, French
oleographs, Austrian lustres, German tissues and cheap-
brocades, there is not much hope." When will Indians-
make it impossible for any enemy to throw in their teeth a
reproach so true as this ?

Even more important, then, than the establishment of
new industries on Indian soil, are the patronage and revival